Hornady SST

[Jwill]

I switched to these bullets for my muzzleloader this year and have had trouble finding evidence of a hit and/or blood trails. I shot two whitetail does and didn't find any sign of a hit until I found dead deer. Both were full pass throughs, with hits on the vitals, the deer went about 75-100 yards before expiring. One was a 50 yard shot, one was about 75. Luckily I refused to accept a miss and kept looking until I found the deer and didn't lose any meat. I'm not claiming perfect shots, but some sign of a hit and blood trail would have been nice.

Anybody else had this kind of problem with these bullets? I definitely plan to switch it up next season.

 

[LNGBOWFLYER]

These bullets are horrible. They are very accurate and group well. But thats where the good news ends. I shot two mule deer both lung shots and both ran as far as you mentioned before expiring. Little to no blood trails on both. No big deal in the open country where you can see them fall, but in thick stuff the lack of a blood trail is a big deal. My brother shot 2 other deer and an elk with the same results. We never found a bullet because all were pass throughs. Then two years ago my friend had a 5pt bull elk come in and was quartering to him real hard. He shot the bull and the bullet went through the shoulder across the body and lodged in the offside hip. No blood trail to speak of. But we finally found the bull. Also finally we had a bullet to examine. What we saw was awful. Yes it retain ALL 100% of its weight but, it had ZERO, I mean 0 expansion. In fact the polymers tip was still there.

So your problem with this bullet is the bullets were designed for a modern rifle. The muzzle loader bullet is the same design. But the bullets out of the muzzle loader do not go fast enough to open up and expand like they are supposed to.

Fast forward to last year. My buddy harvested a nice 6pt bull at 30yds a a really nice 4x4 muley at 200yds. Both of his new bullets he was using opened up and expanded a ton. Did massive damage. The bull made it about 15 yds. The mule deer dropped where he stood. WE.... Now use the 300grain Deep Curl made by Speer. Bullet is twice as cheap as Hornady and actually does what its supposed to do.

 

[noharleyyet]

I shot ballistic tips exclusively for Tx game but switched to the more sturdy bonded, trip shocks, and tipped bonded stuff when I began hunting Colorado elk and muley. Never had any issue with BT's on whitey and hogs. Even tried Rem Accutips & they did fine also. Never tried SST.

google sst vs ballistic tip....some pretty good discussions available

...sorry fellows, just noticed this was in the ML section.

 

[Recurve62]

Hornady SST in .257 Roberts for pa whitetail, havent had any problems with them, drop deer in sight the two years i have used them. Planned to use them in my 06 on a CO. elk hunt this year.

 

[Recurve62]

sorry, i just noticed ML section also. Again, my bad

 

[T Bone]

I missed this very large muley with a 50 cal SST.

It's got to be the bullet's fault. Bastid.

 

[A-con]

I've applied for a Muzzle loader tag, and have other front loader plans for the near future.
I've been researching this question, and one thing I've noticed.

Everyone seems to love the Barns solid bullets. Looking at dozens of posts on several different sites, I don't think I've seen a single negative post about Barns. Not one.

 

[emrah1028]

Not to thread-jack, but I will... Is this the exact same bullet as the T/C Shockwave? I use the black-saboted ones in my T/C Icon with 2 pellets of Pyrodex and get a touching cloverleaf with open sights at 100 yards. Couldn't ask for better accuracy. But if this is the same bullet as the SST (which it SURE looks like), I might have to switch to something else.

Emrah

 

[T Bone]

Sorry, I mis-spoke. I was using the Hornady 350 grain FPB, not the SST. I've never used nor missed with the SST.

The FPB when it does hit, does just fine on critters. I killed a couple of whitetail does with them and it makes nice big holes and very wide blood trails.

 

[dustinf]

I'm shooting a 245 grain hollow point Powerbelt, pushing it with 100 grains Pyrodex out of my flintlock. The only problem I've ever had is losing too much meat around the exit wound.

 

[LNGBOWFLYER]

Emrah yes that is the same exact bullet made by the same manufacturer just in a different color and different package. Also IMHO ALL....ALL muzzle loader bullets are way overpriced. They are mostly pistol bullets with a sabot in a package for double the price. I'm gonna make a thread about this. So I don't jack your thread.